Your Right to Know

Columbus City Council members approved two construction projects last night despite opposition
from residents who urged them to uphold city-approved neighborhood plans.

About 100 people packed the council chambers, about half of them from the Harrison West
neighborhood just south of Ohio State University and about half from Clintonville.

In the Harrison West case, the council unanimously approved allowing the Wagenbrenner Co. to
build a 108-unit apartment building on a 1.9-acre parcel that was planned for no more than 75
units. In the second, council members voted 6-1 to allow the Wesley Glen Retirement Center to build
a 120-space parking lot on residential land on Fenway Road to the north of its campus.

Councilwoman Priscilla R. Tyson cast the no vote.

Harrison West neighbors said that Wagenbrenner officials told them as recently as April that the
site near their homes in the developer’s Harrison Park neighborhood would hold 42 condominiums. The
plan for 108 apartments is too dense, and at four stories too tall, they said. They also said it
will cause more traffic and attract single young adults instead of families.

“This proposal violates the entire spirit of the Harrison West plan,” Adam Deutsch, president of
the Harrison Park Homeowners Association, told the council. “You’re setting a precedent that says
to developers, ‘It’s open season on Harrison West.’ ”

Developer Mark Wagenbrenner defended the proposal, saying the entire Harrison Park development
on former industrial land near the Olentangy River was planned for 345 units. This project won’t
change that overall density, he said.

The project changed to apartments from condominiums, he said, because that’s where the market
is. Eventually, he said, the company plans to sell the one- and two-bedroom units, but nobody wants
to buy condominiums now.

Councilman A. Troy Miller, the council’s zoning chairman, said he was persuaded to vote yes
because the 345-unit limit on the whole development won’t be exceeded, and by Wagenbrenner’s past
record.

“His work has been very good,” Miller said. “We’re not talking about a question of an unknown
developer making these changes.”

In the other case, both the Clintonville Area Commission and the city’s zoning office opposed
the parking lot because it encroaches on a residential area designated in the neighborhood’s
plan.

Apologetic officials from the retirement home said they got into a parking crunch when they
built a new activity center for their residents on a former parking area. Despite several attempts
to come up with a plan that would appease neighbors, they were unable to do so, said Michael
Shannon, the attorney for the retirement home.

D Searcy, a member of the area commission, said the retirement home has other options, including
a lot across N. High Street that’s already zoned for commercial use. She said the center’s
operators should have known when they built the activity center that parking would be a
problem.

But two other members of the area commission, Jennifer Kangas and John DeFourney, told the
council that the plan to place the parking on Fenway near High Street is the best option for
solving Wesley Glen’s problems. DeFourney, the area commission president, signed up to speak
against the zoning change, then asked council members to approve it.

Miller said a zoning change was necessary to help the center’s employees: “We’re trying to take
care of those who are taking care of elderly individuals.”